JUSTice and Participation through LocAlised and Citizen-centred Engagement - Redesigning democracy through people-in-places territorial strategies

JUSTPLACE tackles a European paradox: national averages suggest convergence while intra-national gaps grow, trust erodes, and many territories feel unseen. The project explains and helps reverse democratic disaffection through a double intersectional lens that joins personal disadvantages with territorial disadvantages and through a people-in-places policy perspective. It asks how cumulative inequalities shape engagement across places and which place-sensitive solutions can strengthen democratic resilience.
Three objectives guide the work.
O1: understand how objective and perceived inequalities structure democratic attitudes and trajectories across European territories.
O2: analyse how such configurations produce democratic apathy, protest, or resilient participation.
O3: co-produce place-sensitive democratic innovations with citizens and local actors, and deliver tools that public authorities can adopt and scale.
Expected outcomes: a sharper account of the inequality–democracy nexus; new evidence on perceptions and recognition; tested tools that help local governments assess and improve democratic practice; and a replication roadmap for Democracy Studios.

Contribution to SDGs: 10